FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Nigeria Plans Railroad To Link Up with Niger in the North

Nov. 15, 2018 (EIRNS)—Among many other projects to develop new 1435 mm (standard gauge railways to augment and gradually replace Nigeria’s 1067 mm narrow gauge network, the government has unveiled plans for a line running north into the neighboring Niger Republic. The 248 km standard gauge route from Kano to Maradi would also serve Nigeria’s northern provinces of Jigawa and Katsina, passing through Dutse, Kazaure, Daura and Katsina before crossing the border near Jibia. Announcing details in the capital, Abuja, last month, Nigerian Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi said the line was being developed by the two governments in partnership. “This is part of our efforts to promote regional integration and trade between our two nations,” Railway Gazette quoted him as saying, on Nov. 10.

The railway would also serve a new oil refinery which is to be built in Maradi under an agreement between Nigeria’s Minister State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu and Niger’s Energy Minister Foumakoye Gado earlier this year. Under that deal, Nigeria would assist with the construction of a crude oil pipeline to link the refinery with Niger’s rapidly-developing oil fields, augmenting the existing refinery at Zinder which mainly exports via a pipeline to Chad.